Sunday, February 1, 2009

WAB Greek Army

Matt, a student in my school gaming club, has put together a really great looking 1,000 point Greek hoplite army for Warhammer Ancient Battles. This is the third army Matt has finished, and he only started painting in October of '07.

Two Shots of the Whole Army

The army's roster is:

1 General

19 Armored Hoplites

20 Armored Hoplites

20 Unarmored Hoplites

6 Light Greek Cavalry

7 Peltasts

6 Peltasts

Last month Matt fielded these Greeks against my Polybian Romans in two fights. The Greeks won the first battle, and the Romans won the second. We really enjoyed pitting the phalanx against the Roman manipular system. It made for some tense games. The Roman and Greek light troops are also well matched.

Hoplite Line

Here is the strength of any Greek army: a solid hoplite block. Matt used North Star spears and Little Big Men shield transfers. The hoplites are all from Crusader's Rank and File Line. The Thracian skirmishers are also Crusader. The cavalry are Old Glory. Matt used Litko bases with Woodland Scenics and Silflor prairie tufts.

First Phalanx

This is an armored phalanx, with general and trumpeter from Foundry WG3/1 "Athenian Command." Matt uses a basswood movement tray with magnetic sheeting so that the flexible steel base bottoms will stick. This makes it easy to move his phalanxes as a unit, but also easy to remove individual figures as casualties.

Second Phalanx

This phalanx is also armored. The command figures here are from Crusader's Rank and File Armored Hoplite Command. Greek units in WAB do not get unit standards. Instead they roll for "oracle points" at the beginning of the game. These points can be spent to give Greek units a bonus in combat or to reroll morale tests.

Third Phalanx

Matt's last phalanx is made up of unarmored hoplites. They are just as deadly to the enemy, but they only save on a 5 or 6 instead of a 4-6, so they don't quite have the staying power of the armored units. Matt varied his tunic colors quite a bit to make the unit more visually interetsing.

Thracian Skirmishers

Matt went all out on the Thracian clothing, painting designs and using many interesting color combinations. These are a far cry from the usual drab skirmishers. Matt hand painted all the Thracian shields. Unfortunately, you can't see any of them in these pictures!

Light Cavalry

These are Old Glory Thracian light cavalry. Matt hand painted these shields as well. The Thracian cavalry are superb skirmishers.

Matt is working on increasing the size of his Greek army to 2,000 points. He will add strength to the phalanxes, bringing them each to 36 men, and he will add another phalanx of unarmored hoplites. The skirmishers will get slight bumps in their numbers.